Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Illustration by Lo Cole[1]
Studio album by
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Released29 October 1984 (1984-10-29)
RecordedJuly 1983–1984
Studio
GenrePop[2][3]
Length64:06
LabelZTT
ProducerTrevor Horn
Frankie Goes to Hollywood chronology
Welcome to the Pleasuredome
(1984) 		Bang!
(1985)
Alternative cover
The original CD cover, which was taken from one of the vinyl record's dust jackets.
Cover photography by Peter Ashworth[4]
Singles from Welcome to the Pleasuredome
  1. "Relax"
    Released: 24 October 1983
  2. "Two Tribes"
    Released: 4 June 1984[5]
  3. "The Power of Love"
    Released: 19 November 1984
  4. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome"
    Released: 18 March 1985

Welcome to the Pleasuredome is the debut studio album by English synth-pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, first released on 29 October 1984 by ZTT Records.[6] Originally issued as a vinyl double album, it was assured of a UK chart entry at number one due to reported advance sales of over one million.[6] It actually sold around a quarter of a million copies in its first week.[7] The album was also a top-10 seller internationally in countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.

The album was commercially successful and contained new versions of the songs from the group's singles from the same year ("Relax" and "Two Tribes", plus B-side "War"), as well as several cover versions. Trevor Horn's production dominated the record so thoroughly that the band's own instrumental performances were often replaced by session musicians or Horn himself.[8] Frankie's second album, Liverpool, actively featured the full band.

The ballad "The Power of Love" subsequently provided the group with their third consecutive UK number-one single.

To celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, in October 2014, ZTT through Union Square Music released a limited edition (2,000 copies only) box set titled Inside the Pleasuredome, available exclusively from the website pledgemusic.com. The box set contains rarities on 10" vinyl, as well as a book, a DVD, a cassette (featuring 13 mixes of "Relax" and its B-side "One September Monday") as well as a new 2014 remastered version of Welcome to the Pleasuredome on 180g vinyl.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference artofztt.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Bell, Max (3–9 November 1984). "Frankie say pleasure can pay". The Times. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cook was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Liverpool Echo: Peter Ashworth interview: Frankie Goes to Hollywood
  5. ^ "Record Mirror". 16 June 1984.
  6. ^ a b Thrills, Adrian (13 October 1984). "Frankie Say: Beat It!". NME. London. p. 2.
  7. ^ Jones, Alan (10 April 1993). "Chart Focus". Music Week. p. 11.
  8. ^ Griffiths, Daniel (11 May 2024). ""Getting her to the studio was tough! But once we got her there, she was wonderful. We really sprung Slave... on her": The story of Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm – tempo changes, stacked Roland synth patches and Trevor Horn". MusicRadar. Retrieved 20 May 2024.